Star of the Show
by KatLeePT
Summary: Bobby takes his girls out. Mild Het and Slash.


He remembers feeling his best friend's pain when he found her with her fingers pressed to her temples and a sad, almost haunted look on her beautiful face. He remembers knowing that she was hurting despite the fact that she's the telepath and he's only Iceman. He remembers wanting to kick Scott Summers' ass, and then Gambit's too as Rogue came down the hallway slowly pulling off her yellow gloves and fussing about the Cajun's latest mistake.

"Ah don't believe he had th' nerve t' flirt with her right in front o' me! Ah mean, yeah, maybe she can touch him when Ah can't," Rogue admitted, "but _still_ , Ah was right there!"

Jean had opened her eyes just then, and he'd seen the surprise in them when she'd realized he'd been watching her for the last five minutes. "That settles it," Bobby had spoken to both the women. "I know Scott had those reservations, Jean, and we're not going to let them go to waste."

They hadn't either, and the three of them had had a blast all night. They had drank and eaten exactly what they wanted and sang along to the songs playing over the PA system. They had even gone dancing, and Bobby had felt like the star of the dance floor, instead of the usual dud he felt when compared to his boyfriend, who was more elegant, more graceful, more intelligent, more _everything_ than himself. But his friends had made him feel like that star. Having two beautiful women on his arms all night long had made him the envy of every guy in downtown New York - and some of the women as well.

Jean sighs now as she lays back, her red head nestling into his shoulder. _Sometimes,_ she whispers through his and Rogue's minds, _I really wish you weren't gay, Bobby._

Bobby stiffens, uncertain how to take her remark. He's never really discussed his love life with any of the team except, of course, for his boyfriend. He's not even certain the Professor knows.

 _Relax, shugah,_ Rogue adds, her gloved hand caressing his bare one. _We don't bite - often._

 _Rogue!_ Jean chastises, giggling aloud. _But, seriously, Bobby, you know we know._

 _No,_ he answers honestly. _I . . . didn't._ Perhaps he doesn't hide his romantic inclinations as well as he's always thought. Perhaps it's obvious when he's with him, how much he loves Hank. Perhaps they just know him so darn well, and they're not prejudiced. They don't have blinders on unlike his parents, who first tried to refuse to believe that he's a mutant and still haven't accepted the fact that he's homosexual. His father would have tried to beat that out of him too, had he known.

 _It's okay, Bobby,_ Jean says.

Rogue's fingers curl around his. _Yoah father was a jerk. Even worse than a certain Cajun we all know who you actually made me forget about for a while tonight._

They'd made him forget too. For a while, he'd forgotten how he always feels inferior to Hank, how he was taught to feel inferior to the people around him. He even forgot to worry about Hank and the others being away on the mission this evening.

 _I'm almost glad Scott couldn't make it,_ Jean adds softly.

 _Ah am glad Gambit couldn't make it._

 _He's a jerk,_ Bobby says, not for the first time. _He knows better than to flirt out in the open in front of you. You don't flirt with somebody - anybody - in front of the person you supposedly love._

 _That's th' thing 'bout Remy, shugah. He wouldn't know love if it bit him in th' butt._

 _He really doesn't care that you can't touch him, Rogue. At least not much. He'd like for you to be able to touch, but your inability to control your powers doesn't change how he feels about you._

 _Yet he can still flirt with that civilian._

 _Gambit would be flirting on his death bed._

The friends enjoying a good, long laugh shared together before Jean remarks gently, _Hank doesn't mean to always make you feel inferior, Bobby. You know that, right?_

He sighs, leaning back in his chair and trying, for a moment, to focus on the women snuggling into either side of his body. _I know,_ he admits, _but . . . he can't help it. It's just the way he is, just like Gambit can't help flirting with everything in a skirt._

 _She wasn't wearing a skirt._

 _Really, Rogue?_ Jean and Bobby burst out laughing again. After a moment, Rogue joins them too.

 _She was in leopard print pants. Darn things left very little to th' imagination,_ Rogue tells them, still laughing.

Jean rolls her eyes. _Leave it to Gambit._

Bobby's eyes roll too as he adds, _The man never did have the good sense God gave a . . ._ He pauses, looking for the right phrase.

 _God gave a gay man?_ Jean suggests. Her laughter ceasing, she adds more gently as she takes hold of his other hand, _Seriously, Bobby, we've always known you're gay. No straight man has ever been as kind to women as you are._

Rogue nods. _It's like you care an' . . . an' you get us no matter what else is happenin'. Ah know it's silly, 'cause this sounds like somethin' romantic an' you're totally gay - an' we get that an' don't have a problem with it -, but it's like you really love us. You put us first._

 _He does love us. Just not in that way._

Bobby nods and leans his head against Jean's, only choosing her over Rogue because he knows better than to let Rogue's hair touch him even for a moment. _Jean's right. You two are the sisters I never had, and . . . For what it's worth, sometimes, I wish I was straight too._ He really does, he realizes, and not just because it would mean easier, wider acceptance for him in a world that already hates him because of the extra gene for which he never asked. These two women clinging to either side of him tonight actually make him feel . . . worthy, worthy of their companionship, worthy to be their friend, worthy to love them if they did, if he could.

 _Thanks, Bobby. That's one of the sweetest things any one's ever said to me, and you always do say the sweetest things._

 _Yeah, shugah, you do._

He pauses, then asks through their shared, telepathic bond for the night, _Does this night ever have to end?_

The strands of a new song are beginning. He can see the video in his head where Bowie and Mick Jagger come together hot and explosive. He and Hank have danced to that song before, and he's had it playing in his head many a time when the X-Men were fighting seemingly impossible odds out on a street somewhere far away from their home here in New York.

Jean stands and shimmies in place. She holds out her hands to both Bobby and Rogue. Grinning from ear to ear, she says, "Not any time soon."

 _Ah figure we can keep this party going at least as long as they keep fightin'._ She takes Jean's hand and grabs Bobby's other hand. "Or they throw us out."

Grinning, Bobby lets them lead him out to the dance floor. "They won't do that," he declares. "We're the stars of the show!"

The girls laugh, and his heart actually feels light for a change. Suddenly, he realizes that even though he turned what was supposed to be separate dates at the same place for he and Hank and Scott and Jean into what was supposed to be a party to insure his friends' happiness and help them through another lonely night, he, too, has been reassured tonight. They've made him happy tonight as he's been intending to make them.

 _You have made us happy, Bobby!_ Rogue exclaims in his mind.

 _Very happy,_ Jean agrees, _but what are sisters for, if not to also cheer up their baby brothers?_ He looks at her in surprise. "Oh, yeah, I mean it," she tells him aloud, beaming. "Every word of it. Now spin me."

He does as she directs, and once again, he feels like the star of the show. Once again, they shine as they dance and shimmy, wriggle and spin to Bowie and Jagger, one of the best combinations there ever was, and perhaps, Bobby realizes, he's got another of the best combinations there ever was right here on this dance floor. He spins Rogue out, catches Jean, spins her again, and catches Rogue. He and his sisters move in time to the song, and Bobby realizes, Hank or no Hank, he's never felt happier.

The End


End file.
